Scientists insert tiny motors into human cells, and then fire them up

In the movie Fantastic Voyage a crew is placed aboard a submarine, miniaturized and then injected into the bloodstream of a man to save his life.

Science isn’t quite there yet, but as a new research study shows, they’re getting closer.

Scientists, publishing in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition,say they have injected tiny motorized bits of metal into human cells and then controlled them with ultrasound waves and magnetism.

This first effort is shown in the image below, where the tiny nanomotors are shown moving around inside of a cell and then organizing themselves.

Obviously these are rudimentary machines, but the notion that one can put a tiny object inside a human cell and then control it foreshadows a future in which physicians will have far more powerful tools to treat human diseases by manipulating cells from the inside.